


Ripped At Every Edge (But You’re A Masterpiece)

by Rockingham



Category: Choices: High School Story: Class Act (Visual Novel)
Genre: Abuse, Blood, F/F, Fist Fights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-15 18:30:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18504637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rockingham/pseuds/Rockingham
Summary: Brian catches wind of Skye and Bailey's relationship. Skye has to deal with the aftermath.





	Ripped At Every Edge (But You’re A Masterpiece)

Skye misses the theatre room, so much so that she finds herself wandering into the empty room after a particularly bad day. She slowly walks towards the stage, hand grazing a worn red seats as she passes. The open room made her feel safe. Made the burning her her chest ease just a bit.

The adrenaline that had been rushing through her a few moments ago is almost faded, her body ached with exhaustion, head throbbing as she leans her back against the front of the stage, convinced a minute to let herself breathe would stop the room from spinning.

She had been so,  _so_  stupid.

_**\- Two Weeks Ago -**_  

Skye wouldn’t particularly say she was a morning person, but she knew her brother was at least five times worse then she was. So to see him march down the steps ten minutes early with a huge smile on his face was enough to feel the pit forming in her stomach.

“Morning Baby Sis!” The cheshire cat grin Brian sends her is enough to make Skye’s blood run cold. He was up to something, he never bothered with her unless there was a reason. He certainly wasn’t  _nice_  to her by any means without a reason. Brian strides across the kitchen and wraps an arm around Skye’s shoulders, “You know, I’ve been thinking about how we never hang out.”

“Really?” Skye raises an eyebrow, trying to look as disinterested as possible as she tries to move out from under Brian’s arm. He only tightens his grip, forcing Skye horribly closer to him, almost choking on the strong cologne smell coming off of him.

“Yeah, I was thinking since you’re so smart, you could help me with an English paper I have to write.” Brian started as he smiled wider, “You see, I need an A so I can stay on the baseball team, so I’m hoping you’ll do it for me.”

Well that was blunt.

“That’s not really hanging out.” Skye pointed out with a slight twinge of disappointment. Sure, her and her brother were never really close, but it would have been nice to have a normal brother/sister relationship with him rather then flat out avoiding each other.

“I guess your right,” Brian shrugged, “But you’ll get to do something nice for me, so I think that’s close enough.”

“Why should I?” Skye almost regrets challenging it, but Brian just laughs, his arm locks under her chin, threatening to cut off airflow, Skye coughs and moves her hands to his arm, a weak attempt at getting him to let go.

“I’m going to forgive the wise ass attitude, just this once, because I’m in such a good mood.” Brian states as he loosens his grip enough for Skye to breathe, “How about a deal, Sis? You do my paper, get me an A, and keep me on the team, and I’ll keep mom and dad from ever seeing this.”

Brian flashes a thin strip of paper in front of her face, it takes Skye a few seconds to realize what he’s showing her. The moment she does, she can feel panic pressing down on her chest.

It’s a photo strip from an old photo booth. Of her and Bailey. The last picture Bailey had leaned over and kissed her, captured permanently on the small square.

“You know, I bet mom and dad would love to know why you’ve been so smiley lately.”

“Give that back!” Skye makes a half hearted attempt to snatch the paper from Brian’s hand, he easily dodges her, using her momentum against her, he shoves her forward into the counter instead. She feels her ribs hit the marble hard, taking the breath out of her the minute she hits it.

“Hey, I’m trying to be reasonable! You should be happy I found it and not mom or dad.” Brian taunted as he pockets the strip of photos. “Not my fault you got stupid and used it as a bookmark. So do we have a deal or not.”

Skye can almost hear her mother yelling at her, hear her calling her every old name and old remark that dug into old wounds. She could see her mother’s icy stare as she yelled, her vary presence causing the temperature to drop.

The punishment would be worse, and Skye didn’t want to think of what that could be.

“Deal.”

_**————————————————————–** _

This paper was impossible. Not because Skye wasn’t capable of doing it, but cause Brian was incapable of giving her the means to do it. First, Skye needed the damn syllabus so she knew what she was writing. Second, she needed the damn book  _Brian_  was supposed to analyze for the paper. And of course he hadn’t read it so it wasn’t like she could get any help from him.

Two weeks wasn’t nearly enough time to write a ten page paper. If Brian hadn’t waited so long to coerce Skye into doing it, at least it wouldn’t be causing her as much stress as it was now.

On top of all of that she still had her own homework to do. She had to read  _Of Mice and Men_ from cover to cover within a few days just so she could get the outline turned in for Brian’s class on time. On top of that she had to read  _To Kill A Mockingbird_  for her own honors English class and write a paper for her history class. Needless to say words, themes, and characters were all starting to blend together.

It didn’t help that Brian had taken a picture of the syllabus for the paper on his phone and texted it to her instead of just giving it to her. She could hardly read some of the bullet points for the paper. She just had to sit back and hope she did a good enough job to get Brian an A.

A low A. Probably an A-, and even that was be generous at this point.

Skye’s scribbling notes for a rough draft when she feels someone lay a soft hand on her shoulder, she looks up quickly, half expecting Brian to be checking up on his paper when she’s greeted with a soft smile.

“Hey,” Bailey greets softly as she steals the seat next to her at the table.

“Hey,”

“You look stressed.” Bailey offered moving her hand to rub against the redhead’s shoulder blades, removing some of the tension against her back. Skye immediately relaxes to the touch. “You OK?”

_No_

“Yeah, just…” Skye hesitates, “A lot.”

Bailey gives her a soft smile and Skye feels guilty. 

“You know we can help if you need it.” Bailey offers gently, and Skye knows that what she’s saying is true…but they can’t help her with this. “Oh!”

Bailey digs in her backpack for a second and pulls out a tupperware container. She opens it and hands Skye a homemade chocolate chip cookie. Skye stares at her confused.

“I tried to help bake cookies for the restaurant and ended up kinda toasting the first batch. They’re a little too dark on the bottom, but I promise they still taste good.” Bailey smiles brighter when Skye takes the offered treat from her, “Remember to take a break OK? And make sure to get some sleep.”

“OK,” Skye manages the best smile she can, it doesn’t reach her eyes and she feels even guiltier about not telling Bailey what was really going on, but…she just couldn’t.

Bailey smiles, the kind of smile that just radiates just how…good she was. It’s a warmth she possesses that always made Skye feel better whenever she was near her. Bailey leans forward to place a gentle kiss against Skye’s lips before she stands up. “I gotta get home, but I’ll text you later?”

“OK.”

Skye listens to her footsteps as they fade away, taking her warmth with her. As soon as she’s out of earshot Skye immediately slumps back in her seat, burying her face in her hands, unaware of the blonde watching from the other corner of the library.

_**\- One Week Ago -** _

She can’t believe she misplaced it.

Skye tears through her bag trying to find the worn copy of  _Of Mice And Men_ that’s been nearly glued to her side since Brian forced the paper on her. She needed that book to finish the paper, if she didn’t find it she wouldn’t finish and then Brian would-

“Hey,” Skye jumps at the voice and turns to see Mia standing a few feet away, a worried look on her face and the paperback Skye had been looking for in her hand, “Let’s talk.”

The cheerleader carried an air of authority to her as she started walking, Skye didn’t need to be told to follow her as she takes a seat on one of the couches in the library and gestures for Skye to join her.

“This fell out of your backpack.” Mia starts, instead of just handing the book back, she flips the book open to the first page, 

_Property of Brian Crandall_

The text is written in what Skye knows is her mother’s handwriting. She wrote Brian’s name in all his books so he wouldn’t loose them. It was one of those dorky mom things she only ever did for Brian. Skye feels little ping of jealousy as Mia closes the book and sets it on her lap.

“I’m not going to make you explain, but I want you to listen.” Mia started, turning to give Skye her full attention, “You cannot let Brian have this kind of control over you. He has you doing work for him that’s got you so stressed out your breaking down in the library and I can tell you haven’t slept right in at least two weeks.”

Skye put her head down, breaking eye contact with the other girl. She’s not entirely surprised that the other girl would notice that her makeup had gotten heavier in the last few days. If anyone in this school would notice a detail like that, it would probably be Mia.

“If Brian’s blackmailing you with something, you’ve got to tell your friends what’s going on so they can help you-”

“I can’t.” The words flew from Skye’s mouth before she can stop them. “I can deal with this.”

This wasn’t their problem, this was Skye’s. Skye couldn’t burden them with this. Her friends were all…good. They were all good people, they didn’t need to bend over backwards just to help her.

“You’re not dealing with anything.” Mia pointed out, “You’re more stressed then I’ve ever seen you, your practically living in the library, and your  _girlfriend_  is worried sick about you.”

That last one feels like a punch to the stomach. Skye didn’t like sneaking around like this by any means, and she hated lying to Bailey. Skye could deal with Brian making her own life hell, but knowing Bailey was worried about her-

“Bailey says you won’t talk to her.” Mia started again, her voice much softer. “Look, I know it’s hard, Max used to get me to do things for him too. Not homework by any means, but he used to make me do his chores or cleaning for him. I did a lot of laundry when he found out I was dating Sydney and hadn’t told our parents yet.”

“How did you keep him from using that against you.” 

“…That’s it isn’t it?” Mia asked as Skye shrunk in on herself, “He found out about you and Bailey.”

“…If my parents found out I was dating anyone they’d be pissed.” Skye murmured, “They’ll be furious if they found out it was Bailey, they really don’t like any of my friends.”

Mia’s silent for a moment, collecting her thoughts before wrapping an arm around Skye’s shoulders, “You know when my parents found out I was dating Sydney, I had dyed all my brother’s T-shirts pink.”

Skye looks over at her, confused. “I…don’t think I follow.”

“My parents were so mad about the T-shirts, they yelled about that for hours. To them, that was the bigger offense then who I was dating.” Mia smiles as Skye, “Sometimes, a little misdirection adjusts the punishment to something more manageable. I thought for sure my parents would disown me for dating another girl, but they were so busy punishing me for ruining Max’s T-shirts they didn’t care about who I was dating. You see, my parents care more about Max’s things then they do my personal life, so when I made it about Max, they didn’t care about the parts about me.

It’s not a perfect science by any means, but I’ve found that something effecting Max was always more important to them then anything effecting me, so when the two overlapped, they always focused on Max.”

“So, if I do something that only minority effects Brian, then they’ll worry about that more then something that’s more about me?”

“It could work.” Mia shrugged, “Or course, you know they’ll get mad, you just have to control what they get mad about.”

Skye ponders on the older girl’s words for a moment before she feels Mia ruffle her hair affectionately.

“While you think on that, I’ll proofread the essay you’ve got going for Brian. Once we’re done with that,  _you_  are going home and going to get eight full hours of sleep.”

The two knock out a good portion of the paper before Mia shoos Skye home for sleep. Skye ends up staying up late anyway. The pattern repeats for a few more days before she is finally able to hand off the paper to Brian to turn in.

_**\- Present Day -** _

Skye thought after handing off the paper to Brian in time for the due date she’d be able to sleep easier, but she can’t. Everything felt like it was riding on whether or not the paper was worth an A. The paper was handed in three days ago. Everything was completely out of her hands. 

Skye sighs and slings her backpack over her shoulder, it was getting late, and Mia had already texted her twice to get sleep. Sleep sounded…really good to her right now. Skye left the library and walked to move around the building towards the sidewalk that would lead her home.

She’s turning the corner when she feels someone grab her roughly and throw her into the building, her head hits the brick, dazing her for a second as she falls against the concrete. Blinking a few times, she comes face to face with a piece of paper, “B+” written at the top in red pen.

“Are you serious?!” It’s Brian. Skye feels sticky red blood run down her face as she turns to see her brother’s angry face. His scowl is enough to have her cowering against the brick wall. “You did this on purpose!”

“No I-”

“I thought we had a deal!” Brian yelled into the evening air. His voice carries notes Skye know too well. Brian considers this a betrayal, like Skye sabotaged him so he’d fail. Skye felt her words lock into her throat, nothing moving past her lips that can fight against the silence accusations against her. Nothing but struggled breath as Brian leans back, thinking for a second.

“I’m sorry.” The apology escapes Skye’s mouth like a practiced mantra. The only two words she know that might save her. The words that seem to loose meaning every time she uses them, but they are still the first words to worm their way out of her throat. “I really tried.”

“I know you did.” Brian offered before he grins, it’s fake and cold, “You know, I might even have a new deal for you.”

Brian fished out the strip of photos he’d been holding over Skye’s head for the last two weeks. Skye’s eyes widen as he adjusts the photo in his hands, ripping the bottom square of the strip and throwing it into the wind.

“Hey!” Skye jumps up and rushes him, trying to take the strip from his hands, he dodges her easily, kicking his foot out to knock her off balance before pushing her hard into the concrete ground. Her knee screams when it makes contact, and she manages to catch herself on her hands before she ended up face first on the ground.

“Relax, I’m improving it.” Brian wordlessly rips the top photo as well tossing it over his shoulder as Skye scrambles to her feet again. Brian almost looks impressed when she comes at him again, the final square of the strip grazing past her fingers as Brian grips her wrist with his free hand, pushing her into the brick exterior wall of the building with her arm twisted behind her back.

“Wow, chill.” Brian’s voice is more annoyed now as he lets her go, taking the remaining photo into both his hands and ripping it perfectly in half, separating Skye and Bailey’s images in the photo. He tosses Skye’s half into the wind and smiles.

“You know, your girlfriend is really cute when you take away the fact that she’s dating  _you_.” Brian sneers as he examines Bailey’s photo, “Maybe I’ll have to ask her out, show her a good time. That would make me feel better about not getting the A I need.”

Skye rushes him again, Brian moves the photo out of her grasp, but a shocked expression crossed his face the second he realized that the photo wasn’t what Skye was going for.

Skye’s fist connects with Brian’s face with a loud thwack, Brian stumbles back, dropping the photo and moving both his hands to his face. He lets out a surprised cry as blood flows down his face from his nose. 

“Don’t you dare touch her.” Skye’s voice is unrecognizable to her own ears. It’s more growl then anything else. Brian scowls and moves his hands, his nose wasn’t broken, and Skye was willing to bet her hand hurt worse then his face. Brian throws a punch of his own, connecting with Skye’s ribs hard enough to force the air out of her lungs. She falls forward, clenching her torso as she hit the concrete. She turns to her side to force herself back up when she sees Brian crouching in front of her.

The smile on his face was genuine for a split second before going back to ice, “You know Sis, I’m actually a little impressed.”

Brian spits a mix of spit and blood into her face, “Next time don’t try to pick a fight with me.”

Brian stands up and stretches, “Oh, you might want to try to find a nice place to stay tonight, mom’s not going to let you in the house once we finds out you did this” Brian gestures to his noise. “to me over a girl. She’ll have a field day with this.”

Brian whistles as he walks off, Skye sighs as she pushes herself upright, wiping her face on the sleeve of her sweater. She tries to ignore the pain in her leg or any of the other scrapes she’s gotten as she forces herself to stand. She grabs her backpack and starts walking toward the school.

She wants to go home…Or at least the one place she’s always felt at home.

Skye misses the theatre room, the sense of security it had started to provide for her, the memories of her friends that reside with it. She slowly walks towards the stage, hand grazing a worn red seats as she passes. The open room made her feel safe. Made the burning her her chest ease just a bit.

The adrenaline that had been rushing through her a few moments ago is almost faded, her body ached with exhaustion, head throbbing as she leans her back against the front of the stage, convinced a minute to let herself breathe would stop the room from spinning.

Skye slides down to the floor, wrapping her arms around her knees and burying her face in her arms. The silence is both soothing and haunting as the events of the last few weeks flashed through her head. The stress finally overwhelming her and causing a rush of tears to fly down her face.

She emotionally drained, and in physical pain from the scrapes and bruises covering her body. She has no idea what forced her to go after her brother, but in that moment, Skye knew anyone would be able to see the resemblance between them now. Clearly her temper had the potential to be as bad as his was…

After a few minutes Skye feels her phone vibrating in her pocket, she doesn’t have the energy to pick up, not a single ounce of it to spend listening to her mother tell her all about how she was a terrible daughter, picking fights with her big brother and hitting him in the face.

“…Skye?”

The voice is so soft, Skye doesn’t think when she lifts her head up to see her girlfriend standing a few feet away. The second Bailey sees the blood on Skye’s face, a look of panic crosses her own.

“What happened?” Bailey rushes over to her, kneeling before her and lifting Skye’s face to better see the injury. Her warm fingertips brush against Skye’s jaw as she looks her over. “Stay here, I’m going to get the first-aid kit!”

Bailey dashes off for a moment, returning with the tin white box Ajay kept stashed in the theatre in case of minor injuries. Bailey returns to her spot kneeling in front of Skye as she rummages through the kit. She pulls out all the gauze she can find and the bottle of disinfectant. She soaks one of the gauze pads in the disinfectant and brings it closer to the cut on her forehead. Bailey’s free hand comes up to brush auburn bangs out of Skye’s face.

“This might sting a little.” Bailey warns as she swipes the bad over the wound. It does sting, it burns and Skye flinches a little as Bailey dabs at the wound before moving the gauze to clean the blood that had dripped down Skye’s face. She repeats the motions again with a fresh piece of gauze. After the wound is clean and dry Bailey covers the wound with a smaller gauze pad and a thin strip of medical tape.

Bailey hums as she works, examining Skye for injuries and carefully cleaning and bandaging each one. 

“…I’m sorry.” 

“For what?” Bailey asks softly as she dabbed at the scrape on Skye’s hand.

_For lying to you_

_For making you worry about me_

_For causing you more trouble then I’m possibly worth_

“For everything.”

Bailey pauses, looking up at Skye before moving her hand to the other girl’s chin, making her look up at her. 

“You haven’t done anything to apologize for.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I know  _you_.” Bailey insisted, Skye felt her eyes get watery again. Bailey’s warm brown eyes bore into her own, giving her a gentle look that’s become familiar to her.

“I did something stupid.” Skye’s voice cracks, “And I ended up getting into a fight with Brian because of it.”

“ _Brian_  did this to you?” Bailey’s voice get stronger and Skye flinches at it, Bailey sees the other girl flinch and softens her voice.

“I kinda deserved it.” Skye mutters, “I punched him.”

The rest of the story rolls off Skye’s tongue in chocked words, Bailey listens to her quietly, keeping her hand wrapped around Skye’s while she spoke. When she finishes she’s waiting for Bailey to tell her off. Tell her she should have come to her, she should have gotten help before it got that bad.

“Does…Brian do that to you a lot?” Bailey asks. “Blackmail you into doing things for him.”

Skye shrugs.

“Next time it happens, come tell me Ok?” Bailey says softly before balling her fists, “ _I’ll_  punch him.”

Skye stares at her for a second before a giggle passes her lips before she can stop it, the visual of Bailey chasing her brother down to beat him up was the first funny thing she’s heard of in the last few weeks. Bailey smiles at her.

“I mean it.” Bailey started once Skye looked back at her, “You mean a lot to me, I’m here for you if you need me.”

“I know.” Skye says softly, “I just…I didn’t want to bother you with Brian’s dumb crap.”

“I like when you bother me.” Bailey smiles, “I like when you tell me stupid things. And I like helping you when those dumb things bother you…Besides, you help me with dumb stuff all the time.”

“Ok.” Skye offers half a smile as Bailey stands up, gently pulling Skye with her.

“Come on, let’s go home. We can dress your battle scares better and curl up on the couch.”

Skye follows her as Bailey leads them through the school and out into the evening air.

It wasn’t the first time Skye spent the night, a few other issues with her parents had caused her to stay at Bailey’s, once it was at Rory’s. Skye kept a change of clothes at both girl’s houses in case anything happened in which she couldn’t go home. It wasn’t originally her idea, but Rory and Bailey (even Mrs. Silva) hadn’t given her a choice after learning that Skye’s parents threw her out on occasion when they were feeling particularly evil.

Bailey’s in the shower when Skye finally checks her cell, she’s surprised when she sees the voicemail isn’t from her mother.

One Missed Call:  
BRIAN

One New Voicemail

Skye frowns and unlocks her phone to check the voicemail, sure enough it was Brian who had called her.

_“Joke’s on you Sis! Mom and Dad are out of town for the weekend. Looks like I get to decide your punishment for punching me. Hmmm. I’m standing by my first one, Have fun sleeping in the library! Nighty-Night Sis!”_

Skye shakes her head and deletes the voicemail. Bailey calls that Skye’s free to use the shower as she gets out. Skye actually feels better once she’s clean and wounds are dressed. She walks down the steps to see Bailey already situated on the couch, when she sees Skye she smiles and opens her arms for the other girl to join her.

Skye smiles and shakes her head, laying next to her girlfriend on the couch, tucking her head under Bailey’s chin and wrapping her arms around her waist. Bailey giggles and runs a hand through Skye’s hair.

“You stole my sweatshirt again.”

“Yup.” Skye murmurs as Bailey’s hand repeats his motion through her hair. Bailey tugs on her hair suddenly causing Skye to look up at the other girl. Bailey smiles before leaning down to press a kiss to Skye’s lips.

“Goodnight, Skye.”

“Goodnight, Bailey.”


End file.
